News Broadcasting
HC rejects TV Today plea against publishing Republic TV’s ratings
MUMBAI: The Delhi high court on Thursday evening rejected TV Today’s plea against Republic TV, channel sources told indiantelevision.com.
Before pulling out of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC India), TV Today Network had approached the Delhi High Court to prevent the publication of Republic TV’s BARC ratings. In a plea under the civil extraordinary writ jurisdiction, the network sought an urgent hearing of the matter on 17 May, a day before BARC India released the data for week 19 (6 –12 May, 2017).
The prayer had accused Republic TV of telecast on multiple logical channel numbers (LCNs) in violation of of TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) regulations.
TV Today said the court should direct TRAI to finish its investigation in a limited time bound period. The court denied that plea too.
The court said that this is a matter between broadcasters, MSOs and TRAI. The court did not go into maintainability of TV Today’s case. Said this is a matter for TRAI to look into and take action as per current laws.
TRAI confirmed in court that it has received complaints against Republic TV and also several including TV Today. It will investigate and take appropriate action.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI: Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
